SNL Review

[bob_barron 0]

SNL Review- John C. Reilly/My Chemical Romance

 

Sports Report-

 

Leafs- Even though they lost again to the Rangers (ugh) it was a great game. Aside from when they took a game off against the Avalanche, they’ve been playing surprisingly well.

 

Canucks- The Canucks were off to a slow start, but they had two great wins over the past two games.

 

Saints- I don’t want to say anything too positive for fear of jinxing them. But I’m satisfied.

 

Mailbag!!!!!-

 

[email protected] writes-

 

Hey Bob-

 

I don't really watch RAW that much these days. But I did catch this

past Monday's RAW, which was live from Los Angeles. Obviously, K-Fed was

the centerpiece of the show. Although it was all just publicity stunt, I

thought it was pretty amusing how the Los Angeles crowd shit all over

K-Fed, and how Cena killed him. On the other hand, I thought the

Umaga/Steve-O/Party Boy squashfest was pretty stupid. Those guys didn't even

bother to sell. Anyway, given how K-Fed, Steve-O, and Party Boy all

worked this past Monday's show, it sort of makes me wonder why no

celebrities took part at WM 21, which was held in Los Angeles.

 

So what did you think about the K-Fed, Steve-O, and Party Boy skits on

RAW this past Monday?

 

Later-

 

Ken

 

I liked the K-Fed bit. His promo was hilarious, it works with Nitro and Melina’s Hollywood gimmick and he took an FU without embarrassing himself. The Jackass bit was stupid, but seeing Umaga stiff the shit out of Steve-O was awesome. In Steve-O’s defence, I bet he was just marking out over being on RAW and thus forgot to sell.

 

They didn’t use celebs at Wrestlemania, probably b/c it’s Wrestlemania and they had the matches and stuff planned out in advance. They’re always running long at Mania anyway so a celeb would just be overkill.

 

Wanna be in the mailbag? Email me at [email protected]

 

And now the review….

 

Cold Opening

Cast- Will Forte, Darrell Hammond

Thoughts- Ugh, another Darrell cold opening. This was pretty pointless. Forte had some good facials as Bush, but all this was, was Darrell going on about how Iraq is horrible and Forte nodding. Fantastic! This was a pretty lame way to begin the show, surely they could come up with something better? *1/2

 

Monologue

Cast- Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly

Thoughts- I wonder who the original John Reilly was that caused John C. Reilly to have to take the C? For the record, the C stands for Christopher. So if nothing else, you learned something reading this review. Seeing Will Ferrell back was cool, especially since I love his James Lipton character. He had some good lines, especially claiming Reilly was in Pulp Fiction and how his performance proved the existence of God. Good times. These guys work well together, they were great in Ricky Bobby. I thought the song kind of killed the skit a bit, since singing in a monologue is usually lame. Also, I always thought “Roxie” to be the ultimate Roxie Hart song, not the song they sang. Okay, that sounded gay, but Chicago was a good movie. Anyway, really funny stuff. ***1/2

 

They Don’t Have Slaves in Present Day Williamsburg?

Cast- Reilly, Jason Sudeikis, Maya Rudolph, Kenan Thompson

Thoughts- The problem with having 1.5 black people is that a skit involving racism can’t really reach its fullest potential since you don’t have much to play off of. I thought this skit was very funny, but I felt it could’ve been a lot more. I thought SNL really missed a chance to go for it all here, instead of going for easy, but funny jokes. I did love the bit at the end about Best Buy and Kenan’s death stare. I liked this a lot, but with more ballsy writing, could’ve approached something like The Office’s Diversity Day. ***1/2

 

Swim Coach

Cast- Reilly, Forte, Samberg

Thoughts- A bizarre Will Forte skit! Yay! And Andy Samberg with his shirt off- way to earn that paycheque Andy. This was pretty funny, especially for the random references to swimmers. A quick check to my trusty Sports Almanac reveals that Greta Andersen, of Denmark, won the 100 metre freestyle in the 48 Olympics. Her middle name is Marie, and she is still alive. This was pretty funny, especially Reilly talking about adjusting his penis. Forte as usual did well in his bizarre environment. I hated that they had to end this with a stupid narrated epilogue. Every time they do one of these, it’s NEVER funny and it’s just lazy writing. In 32 years, you’d think they’d come up with something better! This good, but I will have to downgrade for the ending. ***1/4

 

Korean Central Television

Cast- Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Fred Armisen

Thoughts- You know, I don’t think SNL has ever done a funny skit about North Korea or Kim Jong Il. I shudder to think how bad SNL would’ve been if it was on during the Korean War. Amy’s impression is terrible, and I hope we get the North Korea nuke thing resolved, if only so SNL can’t do anymore skits about it. ¾*

 

Two A-Holes

Cast- Reilly, Kristin Wiig, Sudeikis

Thoughts- It’s official, Two A-Holes might be my favourite character on the show. I really loved the awkward vibe that the whole skit created with the drawn out pauses and silences. It was like the 27 Seconds of Silence, only with A-Holes. Loved the Jetsons bit, and Sudeikis saying zoinks out of nowhere. John C. Reilly’s speech at the end, punctuated with the A-Holes just looking at him was really funny. Good to see the Two A-Holes back and still kicking ass. ****

 

My Chemical Romance “Something Emo”

Thoughts- Okay, the song is not actually called that, and I admittedly wasn’t paying too much attention but him whining about his father was pretty funny. The main Chemist looked like the dude from Everclear, who also wrote a song about his daddy issues. At least we have Beck next week, someone who I like and will not be mocking. **

 

Weekend Update

Cast- Seth Meyers, Poehler, Thompson

Thoughts- Kenan really looked nothing like Flava Flav, which was funny in itself. We also had our first quasi-interaction with Seth and Amy with the letter. And the first quasi-interaction was pretty bad! Seth was very good this week, although he relied a bit too much on his Jim Halpert smirk to sell his jokes. That’s my third Office reference of the week, which I admit is bordering on overkill. Amy was crappy this week, and I felt like she took a step back from the previous two weeks. Kenan was pretty funny as Flava Flav, even though I admit to never seeing the show, so I’m sure something was lost on me. Remember when Vh1 used to be awesome with the top 10 countdown and Pop-Up Video? I thought the letter bit was lame, and dragged on for too long. I’m probably overrating this, but I really liked Seth here and it’s a blast seeing him at the desk every week. ***

 

Carol C. Reilly

Cast- Reilly, Poehler, Rudolph, Wiig, Armisen, Sudeikis

Thoughts- No idea what they were going for here, and even the OMG TWO MEN KISSING payoff was pretty lame. I bet Jake Gyenhaal was sitting at home and saying, “I’ve done better.” This was just really bad, nothing more needs to be said. DUD

 

House of Carters

Cast- Sudeikis, Samberg, Thompson

Thoughts- Does everyone remembers the last time they imitated Aaron Carter and Mena Suvari’s career essentially collapsed right there? This was amusing, but the joke was funny once, and didn’t need to be repeated throughout the sketch. I did laugh at them calling them calling Kenan their black manager though. **1/4

 

SNL Digital Short

Cast- Reilly, Samberg, Hader

Thoughts- The SNL Digital Shorts continue to be awesome. Loved John C. Reilly looking like the Gordon’s Fisherman/NY Islander circa 1995. And I liked him mocking his wife and talking about his premature ejaculation problem. The ending with Andy wearing that costume was also good stuff. ***1/2

 

Oreos

Cast- Reilly, Samberg

Thoughts- This seemed like a skit custom made for Will Ferrel but Reilly still was hilarious. I loved him yelling about being an ass and throwing everything. And those Oreo commercials do suck and deserve mockery. Oreo Ice Crème Sandwiches are choice though. But yea, this was hilarious and probably one of my favourite bits of the night. ****

 

Bearshark

Cast- Reilly, Armisen, Rudolph, Hammond, Hader, Sudeikis

Thoughts- Yea, I didn’t get it either. You know what’s almost as bad as the epilogues to skits? Long prologues with a scroll beforehand to explain the skit. That’s usually a bad sign you’re getting a bad skit. I mean, look how well it worked for Alone in the Dark. This skit was awful but I loved the bit with Sudeikis at the end. It made it almost worthy of getting a Tom Green rating, but just wasn’t funny enough to fully qualify. **

 

Oreos Part 2

Cast- Reilly, Thompson

Thoughts- Usually whenever they do the same skit more then once, it never works. But with New York Stories last week and Oreos this week, they might be onto something. Reilly ranting about Big Brothers and throwing the X-Box at Kenan were the highlights. ***1/2

 

My Chemical Romance “Another fruity song”

Thoughts- I didn’t watch much of this, as Fear was on YTV and In and Out was on Bravo. But what I saw looked pretty crappy. *1/2

 

Oreos Part 3

Cast- Reilly, Sudeikis

Thoughts- Yea, this one just didn’t work. Even though I once again laughed at him saying ass. *

 

The Bottom Line- Avg. skit was **.5 making this a thumbs up show, the first of the season. This was one of those shows where every skit was either really funny or total crap. The stuff that’s really funny usually sticks out, so I end up liking these type of shows. Reilly was a very good host, and he made a lot of the skits funny. Even the skits that didn’t work at least were different enough, so they tried. The musical guest sucked and he was hampered by an awful cold opening, so given the uphill battle they had to face, he did a damn good job. I have high hopes for next week, and I hope SNL is starting to settle into a groove.

 

Thumbs Up

[SuperJerk 0]

The Swim Coach skit was fucking awful.